Blood Money: Kenyan Agencies Named in Damning Dossier Trafficking Thousands to Ukraine War Zone

Nairobi, February 21 – A damning new evidence dossier has exposed how African recruitment agencies are allegedly trafficking their own citizens to die on the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Kenyan firms named among six companies across the continent accused of running the deadly pipeline.

A new resource kit assembled by investigators at Code for Africa’s African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO) identifies specific travel agencies and manpower firms allegedly involved in luring vulnerable job seekers with promises of lucrative overseas employment – only for them to end up in Russian military uniforms, deployed to the most dangerous sectors of the battlefield.

According to the dossier, the companies implicated in the scheme include Fly Away Travel & Tour in Ghana, St. Fortunes Travels & Logistics in Nigeria, Tasaheel in Egypt, and Rhema Group in Cameroon. In Kenya, investigators have named Global Face Human Resources Ltd and Ecopillars Manpower Ltd as central players in what authorities describe as a “well-coordinated recruitment scam”

The dossier, compiled from watchdog media reports, specialist research institutions, a growing database of named recruits and casualties, consolidates publicly verified evidence that spotlights the specific methods, channels, and coercive tactics used to enlist or trick African citizens into fighting. It arrives at a moment when African governments are only beginning to quantify the phenomenon – and when the death toll is rapidly climbing.

The ADDO resource kit includes a fact sheet overview of notable trends, a consolidated summary of credible publicly reported evidence, and a baseline database of Africans named as war recruits or casualties. The numbers are stark: researchers have documented 316 Africans believed to have been killed in action, based on European research; 25 Africans confirmed killed; and 15 Africans confirmed as prisoners of war in Ukraine.

But these figures, the dossier stresses, represent only the verified tip of a much larger iceberg. Ukrainian officials estimate that at least 1,436 African nationals have been identified within Russian ranks, while independent researchers at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) put the true number between 3,000 and 4,000.

Perhaps the most detailed national picture to emerge comes from Kenya, where the National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented a classified report to parliament on 18 February 2026. The findings were staggering: more than 1,000 Kenyan nationals have been successfully recruited to join the war, travelling on tourist visas and moving through the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Uganda.

Of those identified, 89 were on the frontlines, 39 were hospitalised, 35 were deployed in camps and bases, 30 were repatriated, 28 were missing in action, one was detained, and one had completed their contract. The report painted a picture of a sophisticated trafficking network exploiting Kenyan desperation.

The recruitment follows a grimly familiar pattern documented across the continent. Agents promise salaries of up to Ksh 449, 000 (US$3,500) monthly and signing bonuses as high as Ksh 1.67 million  (US$13,000). The lures vary from security guards, factory workers, drivers, artisanal roles, but the outcome is consistent. Recruits are locked in rooms, have their phones seized, are forced to sign contracts in Russian without interpreters or lawyers present, are driven at night to military bases, receive basic combat training in less than two weeks, and are deployed to infantry positions where they serve as what survivors describe as “cannon fodder.”

How Journalism Hub broke this story in October 2024: Shock As Kenyan Women Among Recruits Building Drones for Russia’s War in Ukraine

On Russian social media platform VKontakte, posts promoting military service to foreigners surged from 621 to 4,600 between June and September 2025 alone. Promotional content also flourishes on Facebook, TikTok, and X, with influencers based in Kenya, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Africa.

The financial mechanics are brutal. In many cases, victims pay the agents a fee on top of covering their air tickets and visas. One agent who trafficked 14 men from Ghana received Ksh 216,871 (130,000 rubles) from each of them from their Ksh 667,296 (400,000 rubles) signing bonus – totaling roughly Ksh 3.2 million (US$25,000) extracted from men who believed they were escaping poverty.

The dossier documents cases that defy belief. Cameroon national Anatole Frank said he travelled to Russia for dental treatment, only to be forced into military service. Athlete Evans Kibet from Kenya went to Russia for a running race; his host asked if he wanted to stay longer for a job. He ended up on the frontlines, abandoning his combat equipment and surrendering to Ukrainian soldiers.

Some of the earliest African recruits came from Russian prisons. Like Lemekani Nathan Nyirenda, the 23-year-old Zambian who won a government scholarship to study nuclear engineering in Moscow, was arrested for drug trafficking in 2020, sentenced to nine and a half years, released from prison in August 2022 to join the military, and died less than a month later. Nemes Tarimo from Tanzania and Komenan Aboya from Cote d’Ivoire were caught in identical circumstances – jailed for drug offences after travelling to Russia for study, then offered a “shortcut” to freedom.

A Bloomberg report cited in the dossier indicates that Russian officials have increasingly threatened not to extend visas for African students and workers unless they enlist. Some Africans on work visas have been detained and forced to choose between deportation or fighting.

The dossier compiles chilling evidence of how African fighters are treated once deployed. Ukraine’s data suggests that 42 per cent of “mercenaries” die within four months of service in the Russian army. Recruits report being used as bait for Ukrainian drones, treated as expendable, and exposed to greater danger to improve Russian soldiers’ survival odds.

Sierra Leonean national Richard Kanu, now a prisoner of war in Ukraine, told investigators: “Even though we all sign the same contracts, most foreigners are sent to the front lines, while the ‘real’ soldiers stay behind, watching and waiting for the right moment to seize the position. We were exploited by this system.”

Two videos that emerged in January 2026 capture the degradation. One, filmed by a Russian soldier and shared on Facebook by Ukraine’s embassy in Botswana, shows a group of African fighters chanting an East African morale-boosting song. “Look how many disposables are here. They are even singing. So cheerful. No problem. Once they’re sent to the assault, they’ll sing a different tune,” the cameraman says in Russian.

Another video, posted on Telegram by the channel Exilenova+, shows an African soldier with a TM-62 anti-tank mine strapped to his vest, forced at gunpoint to invade a Ukrainian post. The Russian soldier filming describes the African as a “can opener” about to “run and hop through the woods.”

The victim was later identified as 35-year-old Francis Ndung’u Ndura, a Kenyan who had been promised work as an electrical engineer in Russia. His family lost contact with him in October 2025.

Russian media portray a different story, featuring African “volunteers” receiving medals of courage, being baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and declaring love for their new homeland. The ADDO dossier notes that one Gambian national featured in this manner, Lamin Jatta, was later revealed to have been caught as an undocumented immigrant facing deportation or enlistment.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly framed the war in patriotic terms. “Volunteers are motivated by the highest patriotic considerations,” he said in 2023. “Yes, we pay some money, and it is, of course, higher – much higher – than the national average, but can any amount of money offset the risk of someone’s death or serious injury? Of course not.”

Yet Putin’s decrees tell a different story. Between September 2022 and November 2025, he approved several measures encouraging foreign nationals to join the Russian army. A January 2024 decree grants citizenship to foreign nationals who serve for at least one year, along with their family members, reducing the application review period from three months to one. It does not matter that these foreign nationals do not speak or understand Russian.

The Russian embassy in Kenya described the NIS parliamentary report as “dangerous and misleading propaganda.” In a statement, it said it did not encourage Kenyans to participate in the “special military operation,” issue visas to people seeking to join the war, or collude with other groups to lure people.

However, the statement added: “It must be understood that the legislation of the Russian Federation does not preclude citizens of foreign countries from voluntarily enlisting in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, if they stay in Russia on a legal basis and choose to take part in the battle against the NATO-backed Ukrainian Nazism shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen.”

Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Andrey Podolyyshev, similarly denied state involvement on 10 February, saying: “If there are illegal organisations or individuals trying to recruit Nigerians by unlawful means, this is not connected with the Russian state.”

These claims contradict multiple victim accounts and independent investigations. INPACT, the Swiss investigative organisation, identified cases where Russian security services – specifically the Federal Security Service (FSB) – were explicitly involved, coordinating “all or part of these recruitment networks.”

African governments are responding with growing alarm. In February 2026, Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry expressed “grave concern” over the illegal conscription of its nationals, warning that Nigerians who participate in foreign conflicts outside approved governmental frameworks “do so at their own risk.” Togo urged citizens seeking opportunities abroad “to exercise the utmost vigilance.” Egypt now requires young people travelling to Russia and Ukraine for study to obtain security clearance, warning that citizens who join the war risk losing their nationality.

In September 2025, Kenyan police rescued 22 people who had paid an agent and were about to leave for Russia. In January 2026, Ghana’s foreign minister disclosed that the government had opened conversations with Ukraine to secure the release of a Ghanaian prisoner of war.

Yet the dossier notes that many state officials remain silent. Prisoners of war from various African countries have been in Ukrainian custody for close to two years, with no action taken to repatriate them. They risk losing their prisoner of war status and facing prosecution if it is proven they voluntarily joined the war as mercenaries.